mstropka-lookingoutwards-01

This is the 2016 AICP Sponsor reel. The designers behind this piece used motion capture to record various dancers performing and translate their movements to 3D avatars. The team used a combination of procedural animation techniques and dynamic simulations to add character to the different dances.

I find this piece inspiring because the artists behind the work found a way to not just combine the art of dancing with digital art, but they used the digital side to enhance the movements of the dancers. A good example of this is at 0:58-1:03 in the video. The animators emphasized the spinning motion of the dance by creating a flurry of particles that follow the dancer around. Though it is unclear exactly how the dancer is moving, the particle swarm captures the gesture of the moments in a very life like and real way. This work is a very interesting twenty first century take on the ideas that the Italian futurists developed about one hundred years ago. You may be able to see the similarities in Umberto Boccioni’s “Dynamism of a Soccer Player.”

While this video is very entertaining to watch, it only showcases very fast upbeat dancing. I would like to see the technology and techniques that the designers behind this piece used applied to different types of motions. I bet slower more subtle motions could turn into something very beautiful when combined with these effects.